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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24216124">To The Moon And Back</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/king_finn/pseuds/king_finn'>king_finn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Space, First Kiss, First Meetings, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:54:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,561</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24216124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/king_finn/pseuds/king_finn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>1969. Jaskier is lead engineer at NASA, preparing for the launch of Apollo 11, for the first man to set foot on the moon. He meets Geralt, one of the astronauts for Apollo 11, and suddenly his whole world is turned upside down when he realizes that Geralt's life depends on his calculations, is in his hands.</p><p>And what he least of all expected, was to fall in love.</p><p>(Someone on tumblr asked me to write a drabble with the tropes Space AU and Star-crossed Lovers. It got a bit out of hand.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>117</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>To The Moon And Back</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>As I said in the summary, this fic is the result of an ask game on tumblr, where I was asked to write a drabble for the tropes Space AU and Star-Crossed Lovers, which turned out way longer than I had expected. (btw, my tumblr is @king-finnigan, and I'm still taking requests if you're interested!)</p><p>I listened to the soundtrack of The Theory Of Everything, specifically the track Forces of Attraction, while writing this, cause it's very cute and sweet.</p><p>As always, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy, and don't hesitate to leave kudos and a comment if you feel like it!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Jaskier sighs, rubbing his forehead in a futile effort to make the dull ache behind his eyes disappear, as he stares at the blackboard in front of him, the white lines of his calculations swimming in front of his eyes.</p><p>He looks at the clock. It’s nearly one in the morning, he realizes. He should head home, soon. He sighs again when he also realizes that by the time he gets home, he’ll be able to get a whopping two hours of sleep, until he has to get up again - after all, it takes an hour to get home from the Kennedy Space Center, and an hour to drive back to work in the morning. That, and the fact that it takes time to put on pajamas, when he gets home, and to put on his suit in the morning. And he still needs to eat breakfast, and shower, most likely.</p><p>So, he quickly calculates in his head, his initial thought had been right - he’ll be able to get two hours of sleep, if he were to go home now.</p><p>All in all, not great.</p><p>He sighs again. <em>Guess it’s another night at the office, </em>he thinks, as he opens the bottom drawer of his desk. He’s stored a small bag with a toothbrush, a comb, and a fresh change of clothes in there. He saw a situation like this coming when he was first appointed to the Apollo 11 mission, and had brought the bag with him on the first day.</p><p>What he had not seen coming, though, was how many times he would make use of it.</p><p>This is, what? The fifteenth time he’s spending the night here?</p><p>He sighs again, wiping a hand over his face as he walks to the bathroom. It’s, as expected, empty, all other employees on this floor went home hours ago. It’s just Jaskier, now.</p><p>He can’t help but notice the dark circles under his eyes when he looks in the mirror as he brushes his teeth - he should sleep more.</p><p>But still, there’s so much work to do, they’re already so far behind on schedule. The mission is planned for July, only a short three months away, which is very little time when dealing with a project of this magnitude.</p><p>He’s rinsing his mouth out when the door to the bathroom opens, and a large man walks in. The first thing Jaskier notices is how absolutely huge this man is, almost pure muscle, something he’s rarely ever seen before, and he wonders how much time of his day this man spends working out. </p><p>Next thing he notices, is the light blonde hair, though it could also be white or light grey - colours do tend to do weird things under the fluorescent lamps in the building. When the man looks at him, slightly startled, slightly curious, Jaskier can’t help but admire the gold in his eyes - though, again, the fluorescents make colours hard to pinpoint. </p><p>He looks away, wiping his mouth with a paper towel. “Good evening,” he mutters.</p><p>The man smiles at him, nodding in greeting, bending down over the sink next to Jaskier’s, splashing some water into his face. He, too, wipes his face with a paper towel. </p><p>Jaskier can’t help but frown, leaning his back against the porcelain of the sink. “Don’t think I’ve seen you before. Do you work on this floor? Are you an engineer as well?”</p><p>The man shakes his head. “No, I’m not. I work... on a different floor. Just came in here to see what you guys are doing.”</p><p>Jaskier smiles, pulling up his eyebrow. “Did you find out? What we’re doing?”</p><p>The other man smiles as well, shaking his head. “Not really. I’ve seen a lot of blueprints and calculations, but those sorts of things fly well over my head.”</p><p>Jaskier frowns. “Then what do you do?”</p><p>“I’m a biological scientist.”</p><p>Jaskier feels his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. “Really? Then please do tell me, what are you doing at NASA?”</p><p>The other man shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m an astronaut.” </p><p><em>Huh, </em>Jaskier thinks, <em>cute and humble. </em>He catches what he’s thinking and blushes. He shouldn’t think things like that, it’s not right.</p><p>He holds out his hand. “Professor Jaskier Pankratz. Lead engineer. I don’t suppose you’re part of the Apollo 11 crew?”</p><p>The man shakes his hand. “Geralt Rivia. And yes, I am. Which means you hold my life in your hands.” Jaskier blushes. Of course, he’s always known that his calculations are a matter of life and death for the astronauts, but actually meeting one of them makes everything a bit too tangible. </p><p>“It was nice meeting you, professor Pankratz,” Mr. Rivia says, giving him a nod in goodbye before leaving the bathroom. </p><p>Jaskier sighs, wiping a hand over his face, sleep tugging at his eyelids. He has to make a decision, now. Either he goes back to his car for a few hours of sleep, or he goes to the coffee machine around the corner and makes the strongest coffee his stomach can handle.</p><p>He walks out of the bathroom, heading for the coffee machine. It’s going to be a long night, but he only has three more months until the official launch of the Apollo 11. And Mr. Rivia’s life is in his hands, after all.</p><p>---</p><p>It’s been weeks since he’s met Mr. Rivia, and he’s ashamed to say he’s starting to look out of the window to the hallway more and more every day, hoping to at least catch another glimpse of the light-haired man. Of course, time after time, he’s disappointed.</p><p>Astronauts obviously have better things to do than visiting an engineer.</p><p>Still, especially during the dark and lonely hours at night when everyone has gone home and Jaskier has found himself once again spending the night making calculations and blueprints, he looks up more often than not. From time to time, he wanders the hallways, hoping to see the astronaut.</p><p>Of course, as expected, Mr. Rivia isn’t there.</p><p>Two months before the launch of Apollo 11, he’s working on a prototype for the shuttle in the workshop. He’s overviewing the construction, notepad in hand, making sure every little part of the prototype is correctly made.</p><p>In the noise of the construction, he doesn’t hear the small group of men approaching, and startles when someone taps him on the shoulder. It’s the mission coordinator, Bill. </p><p>The man smiles at him. “Ah, professor Pankratz, good to see you here!”</p><p>Jaskier nods back, putting on his most polite smile, despite his annoyance at the fact that Bill just interrupted his thought process. </p><p>The annoyance melts away when he spots Mr. Rivia among the men. In the light that shines into the hangar through the high windows, he can see that the astronaut’s hair is, in fact, white, complementing his amber eyes beautifully.</p><p>He tries to shake the thought away, but something flutters in the pit of his stomach when Mr. Rivia smiles at him. Jaskier smiles back, then blinks, as he remembers where he is and that he’s not exactly supposed to know Mr. Rivia yet. For some reason, he wants to keep their meeting in the bathroom a secret, no matter how silly it sounds.</p><p>And maybe because Ger- <em>Mr. Rivia </em>will get in trouble if they find out he’s been roaming the halls of NASA at night.</p><p>He clears his throat, turning back to the mission coordinator. “What can I help you with, Bill?”</p><p>The man smiles, gesturing at the prototype. “Thought I might show the astronauts what they’ll be flying in a few short months. It would be nice if you could give some information on the spacecraft.”</p><p>Jaskier blinks, then nods. “Yeah, sure, of course. I’d love to.” Well, he wouldn’t love to, really, trying to explain what’s going on to the astronauts only disturbs the progress he had hoped he would be making today. But then again, he doesn’t feel the annoyance he thought he would, when he feels Mr. Rivia’s eyes trained on him, as he starts explaining his calculations and blueprints.</p><p>---</p><p>It’s a week later, and once again, he finds himself at his desk in the middle of the night, three separate mugs half-full of long-cold coffee in front of him. He sighs as he takes a sip of another mug next to him, frowning when he finds this coffee bitter and cold as well.</p><p>He stands up, walking to the machine around the corner, grabbing a new mug from the half-empty shelf. The coffee in the pot has gone cold as well, he finds out, and he throws it in the trash unceremoniously, not even bothering to rinse out the pot before he puts it back in the machine.</p><p>He scoops a generous amount of ground beans in the top of the machine, filling the side with water. He turns it on, leaning on the edge of the table as the machine runs, spluttering a bit as it spews out fresh coffee.</p><p>He sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, trying to push away the sleep that pulls at his eyelids. He startles when he hears a voice next to him, familiar and deep, a voice he’s heard in his dreams once or twice – when he has found the time to sleep. </p><p>“You’re still here.” It’s not a question, but a statement, yet Jaskier can still see curiosity in Mr. Rivia’s amber eyes when he looks up.</p><p>He shrugs. “Much to do.” He pulls his eyebrows up. “I suppose you have much to do as well, Mr. Rivia, and if I’m right, you’re not really supposed to be here in the middle of the night.”</p><p>The astronaut shrugs, slight blush creeping up his neck, and Jaskier feels butterflies flutter in his stomach. “Please do call me Geralt, professor Pankratz.”</p><p>“Only if you call me Jaskier.” He smiles, and once again something stirs in his stomach when Geralt smiles back. “So, what are you doing here, Geralt?”</p><p>The astronaut shrugs. “You looked tired the last time I saw you.”</p><p>Jaskier smiles. “So you came to check up on me?”</p><p>Geralt shrugs again, hand rubbing at the back of his neck. “I suppose so.”</p><p>“Well, I’m here. Now what?” He’s still smiling, though it falters when he touches the side of the coffeepot accidentally, in an attempt to reach the handle, and burns his hand. “Ow!”</p><p>He hisses in pain, looking at the red spot on the side of his hand. Geralt frowns, his own hands gently coming up to hold Jaskier’s hurt one. He softly turns it, looking at the burn. “Hmm.”</p><p>Jaskier scoffs, then shrugs. “Clumsy me. It’ll heal. It always does.”</p><p>Geralt looks up at him. “I guess it will.” Still, he doesn’t let go of Jaskier’s hand, and the engineer finds his breath caught in his chest, at the feeling of Geralt’s warm skin against his.</p><p>They stand there for a while, completely still, looking into each other’s eyes, Geralt’s hands still holding Jaskier’s burnt one.</p><p>A door closes somewhere else on the floor, and the spell is broken. He laughs, pushing Geralt towards the stairwell. “Quick, you’re not supposed to be here.”</p><p>Geralt smiles, and opens the door to the stairwell. At the last second, he turns around, and Jaskier looks back for a moment as footsteps approach them. “Will I see you again?” the astronaut whispers to him, and Jaskier shouldn’t feel the wave of butterflies that is unleashed in his stomach, but he does anyways.</p><p>He smiles back at Geralt. “You know where to find me,” he whispers back, and with that, Geralt is gone, the door quietly closing behind him.</p><p>---</p><p>Geralt visits him again every day the week after that, sitting with him at his desk in the dark and quiet hours of the night. They exchange quick glances, hushed whispers, life stories, and rushed goodbyes when someone else approaches the office.</p><p>Geralt tells him about how he had gone from working on his dad’s horse farm in the Midwest to going to university for his biological science degree, and how it had landed him the job at NASA as the astronaut he had always dreamed of being.</p><p>Jaskier, in turn, tells him how his parents had died in a car accident in Britain, and how he had gone to America to find his luck there, getting a full scholarship at a university, working his way up to lead engineer of NASA.</p><p>And, slowly but surely, he finds himself thinking about Geralt more often during the day, the conversations from the night before and the prospect of seeing him again distracting him from his calculations and his work. In the evening, he can barely sit still as the other employees file out of the building, can’t wait until the moment he looks up and Geralt is there again.</p><p>Though, he knows this can’t last. More and more, people start spending the nights at the office as well, with the launch date of Apollo 11 coming into view, only a month and a half away. More and more, they risk getting caught.</p><p>Not that they’re doing anything inappropriate, heavens no, but still, Geralt is not supposed to be there, is not supposed to roam the halls of NASA at night, and is definitely not supposed to make friends with one of the people that holds his life in his hands.</p><p>And there’s that as well. Jaskier is responsible for the aircraft that’s supposed to carry Geralt and the other astronauts to the moon and back. What if he makes a mistake? What if something goes wrong? He’ll never forgive himself if Geralt dies because of him.</p><p>And even if the aircraft is perfect, there are still a hundred million other things that could go wrong during the mission, a hundred million other ways that could lead to Geralt’s death.</p><p>He shouldn’t become attached, shouldn’t be looking forward to the next time he sees Geralt, shouldn’t find himself thinking about the astronaut again and again.</p><p>Yet, he does, and he seemingly can’t stop himself.</p><p>Though, Destiny seems to be helping him in this matter, for once. A week after Geralt has started visiting him during the quiet hours in the office, he has to stop. There are too many people also staying the night, the risk of getting caught too high to continue... well, whatever it is they’re doing.</p><p>The week after that, he increasingly finds himself on edge, easily snapping at other engineers when he finds a mistake in their calculations, yet distracted from his own work, thoughts filled with memories of hushed whispers, silver hair, and golden eyes.</p><p>He shouldn’t be like this, not over something as inane as not seeing Geralt for a while. He shouldn’t. Yet, he is.</p><p>---</p><p>A month until the launch, he finds himself walking between the buildings at the Kennedy Space Center, looking at a small map in his hands, then gazing up. Ah, there it is.</p><p>It’s weirdly busy in the building, people bustling around, the noise of chatter loud. He wonders if it’s always this busy in here, or if it’s just gotten like this during the past few weeks. </p><p>Finally, he spots them, at the center of all this hubbub, the small group of three astronauts. He frowns in confusion when he sees what they’re wearing: some sort of white suit, with glass domes in front of their faces. <em>Ah, </em>he realizes, <em>their space suits.</em></p><p>He smiles, approaching them. It’s hard to see their faces through the glass, but he easily recognizes Geralt by his broad shoulders. He approaches the astronaut, grinning wildly as Geralt spots him.</p><p>“Hey, you,” he says, as he goes to stand in front of the other man, careful not to disturb the tailor that’s crouching next to Geralt, checking the seams of the suit. </p><p>“Hey,” Geralt says, smiling widely at him. “What do you think?”</p><p>Jaskier laughs. “Honestly? You look kind of ridiculous.”</p><p>Geralt scoffs, still smiling. “Figured that much.”</p><p>Jaskier brings his hand up, smiling as he presses his palm against the glass in front of Geralt’s face. “Huh. Weird, isn’t it?”</p><p>“It is.” When he looks at Geralt again, he finds the astronaut staring right back at him, a soft smile on his lips. And, for some reason, Jaskier gets the feeling he isn’t talking about the suit.</p><p>He leans forward, quickly pressing his forehead against the glass. “Kings Park,” he whispers, before he can think twice about this, “the bench by the lake, dawn.”</p><p>And with that, he takes a few steps back, smiling hesitantly at Geralt, before turning around and walking out of the building.</p><p>---</p><p>The sun isn’t peeking over the horizon yet, but the sky is already lightening, soft pinks and oranges taking over the dark blue of the night. It’s a bit chilly, fog rolling in from the lake swirling around his feet, as he sits on the bench. Still, it’s not that cold - it’s summer in Florida, after all.</p><p>In the distance, in the north, he can see the silhouette of the massive rocket that is going to take Geralt to the moon, and something twists in his gut at the prospect of it, at the knowledge that it’s only a month before the astronauts will embark on the most dangerous mission possible.</p><p>Only a month.</p><p>He looks up as Geralt sits next to him on the bench, smiling at the astronaut. “You came.”</p><p>Geralt smiles back, softly. “Did you really think I wouldn’t?”</p><p>Jaskier shakes his head, looking at the lake. “No, I don’t suppose I did.”</p><p>“So why did you ask me to come here?” Geralt asks.</p><p>Jaskier shrugs. Really, he doesn’t know why, even though he’s been breaking his head over it all night, he still hasn’t figured out what possessed him to ask Geralt to meet him here at dawn.</p><p>“I don’t know.” Then, something hits him, as he looks at Geralt’s profile, at the strong line of his nose and jaw, at the way his hair seems to shine in the first rays of sunlight peeking over the horizon, at the way his eyes glitter like gold when he turns to look at Jaskier. “Just wanted to see you again, I guess.”</p><p>They sit there for a while, on the bench, looking at each other instead of the sunrise in front of them. He has to go back to work soon, they both do, he knows. But he doesn’t want this moment to end, doesn’t want to stop looking at Geralt, doesn’t want to walk away.</p><p>Doesn’t want the butterflies in his stomach and the warm feeling in his chest to go.</p><p>For a brief second, his eyes flicker down to Geralt’s lips, and he can’t help but imagine how they would feel against his own. Geralt smiles at him, leaning in closer, and Jaskier just can’t stop himself from leaning forward as well, until their noses are almost brushing.</p><p>“Ah, professor Pankratz!” A voice from behind them has them moving apart as quickly as possible. Jaskier closes his eyes for a second, composing himself, willing the blush on his cheeks away, before he turns around, to the mission coordinator.</p><p>“Ah, Bill! Fancy seeing you here.” He smiles, even if anger and disappointment flare up in his chest.</p><p>Bill walks towards them. “And Mr. Rivia! Tell me, what are you two doing out here together?”</p><p>Jaskier blinks, exchanging a quick look with Geralt. “We ran into each other here. Pure chance.” </p><p>Bill laughs. “What a coincidence! Say, professor, can you walk with me a short while? I want to go over your calculations for the aircraft again, if that’s alright.” </p><p>Jaskier shrugs. “Of course.” He stands up, following Bill back to the path. He turns around before he’s too far away, though, meeting Geralt’s golden eyes. “Hopefully until soon, Mr. Rivia.”</p><p>Geralt smiles back. “Until soon, professor Pankratz.”</p><p>---</p><p>Then, almost an entire month passes. Jaskier is extremely busy, barely getting enough time to sleep or eat, let alone visit Geralt again. Often, he finds himself thinking back to that one morning, all those weeks ago, and what would’ve happened there, had Bill not interrupted them.</p><p>He can’t stop thinking about Geralt, anymore. More often than not, he finds himself remembering the hushed conversations they used to have, the quick glances and smiles they exchanged across the room when people weren’t looking, the way Geralt’s hair glistened in the early sunlight, the way his eyes were like liquid gold, even in the harshest of fluorescents, the way he smiled at Jaskier, like he was the only person in the world that mattered.</p><p>He wants to go back. Every morning, he tries to remove himself from the office, to go back to Kings Park, back to the bench, looking at the sunrise, hoping Geralt will show up as well. But every morning, another coworker needs him to look at certain calculations, to go down to the workshop, to see if the aircraft has been made the right way, to go over the plans again, etcetera, etcetera.</p><p>So, even if he tries and hopes, he just can’t go to the bench by the lake in Kings Park, no matter how much he wants to.</p><p>Until, one morning, a day before the launch.</p><p>Finally, he finds himself on the bench, looking over the lake as the dark blue of the sky turns lighter, hints of orange and pink dusting the horizon. He only has the opportunity to be here, because his work is done. The aircraft has been made, the calculations have been looked over a million times by twenty different people, and everything checks out.</p><p>So, there is only very little left for him to do, in the day leading up to the launch. And all of that can easily be done in a normal workday’s time. So, now he finally has the opportunity to catch up on sleep.</p><p>But he can’t.</p><p>He can’t sleep, can barely even close his eyes. His mind is constantly racing with thoughts of Geralt, hopes and fears and worries about the launch, tomorrow. </p><p>So, early in the morning, he had crawled out of bed, and he’d gone to Kings Park again. </p><p>He watches now, as the sky turns pink and orange and a gold that could never even come close to rivalling the colour of Geralt’s eyes. The first rays of sunlight peek above the horizon.</p><p>He sits there, and waits. The sun climbs higher and higher, the sky turning a shade of light blue that speaks of a beautiful day ahead, but Jaskier’s hopes are dwindling.</p><p>Eventually, at eight, he stands up from the bench. He blames the tears in his eyes on the bright sunlight, tells himself that he’s definitely not disappointed and sad he didn’t get to see Geralt one last time before the launch.</p><p>He wipes them away before they get to roll down his cheeks. He gathers the pieces of his heart, and turns around.</p><p>Freezes when he sees Geralt, standing halfway between him and the path.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” the astronaut says, “I came as soon as I could.”</p><p>Jaskier smiles, crushing relief and joy mixing with the butterflies in his stomach. “Well, you’re here now.”</p><p>“Jaskier,” Geralt breathes out, seemingly at a loss for words. </p><p>“Geralt,” Jaskier whispers.</p><p>And just like that, the astronaut stalks towards the engineer, large hands coming up to cradle Jaskier’s face. And Jaskier is flying and falling at the same time, when Geralt kisses him.</p><p>He immediately kisses back, hands on the astronaut’s chest, reveling in the softness and warmth of Geralt’s lips, the butterflies in his stomach caught in a whirlwind of emotions.</p><p>Too soon, the moment is over, and Jaskier is staring into those familiar, golden eyes. “Don’t die,” he manages to choke out. “Tomorrow, when you go to the moon. Don’t die.” Tears form in his eyes again, and his voice breaks. “I’ll kill you if you die, Geralt Rivia.”</p><p>The tears slip down his cheeks when Geralt kisses him again. “I won’t,” the astronaut whispers, “I won’t die. I’ll come back to earth, back home. Back to you.”</p><p>Jaskier laughs bitterly, more hot tears spilling down his face. “You better,” he whispers back.</p><p>---</p><p>And Geralt does. By some miracle, he takes off from Cape Canaveral, he walks on the moon, he crashes back down to earth, into the ocean, and he lives through all of it.</p><p>The fear that was gripping at Jaskier’s heart fades, giving way to unbridled joy and crushing relief, as he pushes through the crowd, towards the mobile quarantine facility the astronauts were placed in - just in case they brought pathogens back from the moon. No one really believes there are actually pathogens on the moon, but still, NASA figured they’re better safe than sorry.</p><p>Which means Jaskier won’t get to see Geralt again for the next two weeks. Still, he pushes through the crowd, finally finding himself in front of the window in the tank. </p><p>He smiles wildly when he sees Geralt, when his love pushes forward, laying his hand against the glass.</p><p>Jaskier lays his hand on Geralt’s on the other side, pressing his forehead against the cool glass, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Thank you. For returning.”</p><p>“Thank you for being there to return to,” Geralt whispers to him, smiling just as broadly as Jaskier is.</p><p>The chatter of reporters and scientists alike fills his ears, and with pain in his heart, he pushes back from the glass. “See you in two weeks?”</p><p>Geralt smiles back. “See you in two weeks.”</p><p>---</p><p>He’s sitting on the bench in Kings Park again, watching as the sun starts to rise. Today is the day, he knows, and this fact makes him smile so widely his cheeks hurt. Today, Geralt will be released from quarantine. </p><p>He sits there, waiting as the sky turns pink and orange and gold, the colours fading into the familiar light blue as the minutes tick by. He’s tapping his foot on the ground, hands wringing in his lap, growing more and more impatient as he waits, waits for Geralt, waits for his love.</p><p>The world will always remember 21 July 1969 as the day the first man walked on the moon. Jaskier will always remember 22 July 1969 as the day his love returned home safely, to him.</p><p>He looks back as he hears someone walking up the path, and sure enough, two weeks after returning to earth, Geralt is there. </p><p>Jaskier lets out a choked sob, standing up, running straight into his love’s arms. He cries bitter tears of relief and joy as he presses his face into Geralt’s chest, the astronaut’s arms around him, pulling him close.</p><p>He pulls back a bit, holding Geralt’s face in his hands, kissing him softly. He feels his love smile against his lips, and he could swear to all the gods, he’s never felt so perfectly happy as he does in this moment.</p><p>Geralt leans his forehead against Jaskier’s, their breaths intertwining between them as they stand there, in each other’s embrace. “I love you,” Geralt whispers, and Jaskier loses himself in the liquid gold of his eyes.</p><p>“I love you too,” he whispers back. “I’m glad you came home. Came back to me.”</p><p>Geralt smiles. “I will always come back to you.”</p>
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